For better or worse, they’ve reopened the Iberville projects:
When every public housing development on the east bank of New Orleans was damaged during Hurricane Katrina, federal housing authorities promised a new way of rebuilding them, but the old buildings have currently been renovated and many residents of the Iberville development have been told by HANO to come back home.
The entire subject of the NOLA housing projects is a tough one. Yes, housing is desperately needed… but a couple of New Orleans’ most difficult problems were embodied in those projects: poverty and crime. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look as if change is on the agenda there in the foreseeable future, either [my emphasis]:
“Right now, we’re talking about families needed a place to live, a roof over their head. We do have a long term plan in place. For example, I think we talked about C.J. Peete, and a redevelopment of that housing community, so perhaps down the road, the Department and the Housing Authority will be able to look at how the public housing is situated and perhaps make some improvements.”
Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson responded, “HUD is responding compassionately to the immediate need of people to come home to live their lives. However, I am working with HUD and HANO to create a long term plan that will provide a greater quality of life in Iberville.”
HUD officials said they have been trying to contact former tenants of Iberville to tell them they can come home as their apartments are repaired and pass safety inspections. They also said there is no timeline on when any housing developments will be replaced with more modern, mixed income living.
And so it goes…
Sad, I was hoping that if just one decent thing happened because of Katrina, it would be the reformation of the Housing Authority and the projects.
I agree, although I found myself saying last week that maybe the only choice is to re-open Iberville. I hated hearing that come out of my mouth. Meanwhile, they had done such a great job on the Desire projects with the new designs, and now they’re telling those people that maybe that will not reopen. I don’t get it. I went past it last week and it looked like it wasn’t in too bad a shape, certainly not compared with what’s a few blocks from it. There they had revamped the entire “projects” idea and had gotten away from the gulags.
So now they’ll reopen one of the gulags and abandon the new work that was being done. Makes no sense.
For any reasonable person, with any knowledge of how bad the crime was..IS…
For any reasonable person, with any knowledge of how bad the crime was..IS…in New Orleans..knws that the criminal element that exists in the projects is responsible for 90 percent of the violent crime. That the citizens of NOLA re-elected the same old regime that responded so well during Katrina speaks vollumes to the complacency of the minority populace, that they enable the leaders to continue with their incompetent leadership. The Minority population is responsible for the legal problems in New Orleans, they dont want the criminal justice system to hold their children accountable, they refuse to testify in murder trials..where they witnessed the murder, their children are walking the streets, being vagerant, panhandling, harassing tourists, and locals. WHere is the outrage within the community?..why has parenting become out of fashion?..Schools arent ..nor should they be paroll officers, babysitters..or correction officers..they should not take the place of parenting!..take responsibility for your community..police your neighborhoods..keep an eye on your children, dont let them hang with their friend..not if their friends are criminal..gangs usually form because kids are looking for friendship..and acceptance..stop blaming the MAN for keeping you down..pull yourself up and act with pride..your ace depends on it.